December 10, 2007

Migrants drown off of Turkish Coast

At least 48 people died when a the boat they were traveling in sank. BBC and CNN have very different information about the deaths and the reason for the sinking ship. BBC said it was because the ship was over crowded and CCN said it was because of bad weather. Each of their figures were different for how many people were on the ship at the time and how many died. Both sites did say that there were six survivors that are being treated.

December 2, 2007

Putin's Party has the Majority

With about 80 percent of the votes counted, Russian president, Putin's United Russia party leads with 63 percent of the votes. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov thinks controversially about the outcome, saying that they question the results and will count themselves as well. With this landslide Putin, even after his presidency could have a very powerful role in the government such as becoming prime minister. CNN and BBC covered the story in very similar ways. Giving both sides of the story in detail. The articles were very detailed and gave a good idea of what Russian government will be looking like in the future. However, for those looking for instant news, I thought the articles were a little lengthy. However, with a story like this one, it would be somewhat confusing to be more brief. The type of people reading this story also would like a complete one.

November 26, 2007

French Suburbs are in Chaos

Sunday night in the French suburb of VILLIERS-LE-BEL, two teenagers were killed in a bike accident with a police vehicle which started a riot between the youth of the area. Twenty-one police officers were injured, 15 cars were torched and several fires started due to the chaos. The riot unveiled many parrallels to the 2005 riot. CNN covered the story in an informative yet brief way. However, BBC covered the story as well and had much more information inlcuding a riot also in a neighboring suburb of Arnouville. They also had more information about the accident and how the police are being accused of not helping the boys in the accident and leaving them to die. Relations between police and young people on French suburbs historically has never been good but since the 2005 riot it has been even worse. I thought that the information that BBC had was very important to the story and I found it odd that CNN didn't include the inforamation. Also, the teenage boys were driving a motorcylce and not a bike, which I thought CNN had said. It could have been a problem of translation.

November 19, 2007

France struggles with huge strikes

BBC recently covered the sixth day of the French strike on pension plans and retirement ages for government jobs. BBC did a nice job covering the story and did not make it confusing. There is a lot of information detailed in the article but they layed out the information in an understandable way. CNN briefly covered the story last week at the beginning of the strike. The article was short and understandable but they used a lot of figures to explain what typed of transportation vehicles are going to be run and which are not. Overall, some may find it confusing. The CNN article was from November fourteenth which I thought was a little dated and much more information (as shown in the BBC article) was available to further the story. They may do a short update story soon which I think would be a good idea.

October 29, 2007

Chess-killer is Moscow sentenced to life in prison

Alexander Pichushkin, a russian man is sentenced to life in prison for murdering 61 people. He does not deny the charges and would have continued killing more and more. He is called the chess killer because he was originally killing for every square on a chess board. BBC covered the story as well as CCN. He killed his victims in a surburb park. All of his victims were homeless or elderly men who he would get drunk and them beat to death. Three of his victims were woman, one of which he worked with. She had left a note saying she was going on a walk with him and he knew of the note but killed her anyway. Both stories were similiar but I thought CNN was a little more complete.

October 22, 2007

Poland Liberal opposition is in sight to win election

Poland's liberal condidate Donald Tusk who is pro-EU is set to win the election and will be working alongside conservative, President Kaczynski. Poland had its largest voting turnout since communism fell in 1989. Civic Platform is ahead with more than 41% of the votes, while Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice (PiS) is on about 32% since this morning. To get people to vote they had a text message send to get younger voters. BBC and CNN covered the story and both news sites did a good job of keeping readers attention with enough detail. I'm sure both news outlets will cover the story again once Donald Tusk has been awarded the title and all the votes are counted.

October 14, 2007

Vatican Preist pretending to be gay

Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, a prominant Vatican City preist was suspeded for being thought to be gay. He was caught on video making sexual advances on a young man and telling him is was not sinful to be gay. He said that he pretends to be gay to uncover other gays and tries to learn from it. BBC and CNN covered the story. They both did a good job of covering the story in timely yet an informational manor. CNN attributes Stenico from the la Republica instead of directly talking with him. BBC does this as well but does not say that it was la Republica but instead and Italian newspaper. An ongoing investigation by the Vatican is going on still.

October 7, 2007

Typhoon hits China

The typhoon, Krosa hit China after hitting Taiwan and killing five people. By the time it reached China is was reduced to a tropical storm. However, 1.4 million people were exacuated and many homes are under water. BBC covered the story as well as USA Today. BBC had human sources labeled officials. They also used Xinhua, as a source but did not introduce the person.
USA Today had Xinhua News Agency as a source, which is a better way to introduce the source. They also used Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center as a source. I thought that they introduced their sources in a much better and more professional way. They also had a human source, provincial disaster official Pham Hong Thuong.

September 23, 2007

HIV vaccine trials have been canceled

The international drug company, Merck, was testing people with a HIV vaccine to see if it would build the immune sustem to fight the actual disease. BBC covered the news story and gave a pretty detailed story. BBC explained how the clinical trial was conducted and why it failed to work. Posted by Leah Theorin at 10:51 PM|Permalink

September 17, 2007

France talks about war with Iran

France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner warned the country that Iran is on its way to aquiring nuclear weapons and was quoted as saying "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war." Iran has been aquiring a lot of uranium but deny's making nuclear weapons. Instead they say that they need it for nuclear power to generate electricity for civilian purposes. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is a type of nuclear weapon watchdog, said that there is no clear and present danger and the talk of force could be counter productive. According the the BBC article, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6998602.stm France has had a change of heart towards the US and is trying to secure better relations with the US. A top general in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said any bombing raid on targets in Iran would provoke a tough response, and the United States position in neighboring countries are in Iran's range. BBC's article was very thorough and gave viewpoints from Iran, France, Russia, and the IAEA. It seemed pretty straight forward but some of the quotes made the US sound silly and because of those comments, it made the article seem a little off balance.
The pioneer press had a similar article, http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_6917453. But it gave more of Iran's, the US and the IAEA's point of view.

September 10, 2007

A neo-nazi group in Israel is being charged with hate crimes

Police in Israel have arrested 8 suspects for race hate crimes against Jews and some minorities. Israel doesn't have any hate crime laws which happend to be common in European counties. The suspects will then be charged with vandalism (which was found on two synagogues) and assault. They could also be deported back to Russia. Lately there have been many accounts of bad assaults and vandalsim which all were against Jews or minorities. One of the mothers of the suspects believes that her son is not a nazi supported and is really a witch hunt against Israel's Russian-speaking community. However, Zalman Gilchinsky, an Israeli who has been documenting neo-Nazi groups for several years says that the government just does not accept how many neo-nazi gangs are actually in Isreal. The article was very informative and gave many different viewpoints from different types of people. It seemed very well rounded.
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1411891.html
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1411193.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070909/wl_mideast_afp/israelracismnazicrime_070909161839